Abstract.
The goal of the CoSy project is to create cognitive robots to serve as a testbed of theories on how humans work, and to identify problems and techniques relevant to producing general-purpose human-like domestic robots. Given the constraints on the resources available at the robot's disposal and the complexity of the tasks that the robot has to execute during cognitive interactions with other agents or humans, it is essential that the robot perform just those tasks that are necessary for it to achieve its goal. In this paper we describe our attempts at creating such a system that enables a mobile robot to plan its information processing and sensing actions. We build on an existing planning framework, which is based on Continual Planning. Continual planning combines planning, plan execution and plan monitoring. Unlike classical planning approaches, here it is not necessary to model all contingencies in advance -- the agent acts as soon as it has a feasible plan, in an attempt to gather more information that would help resolve the uncertainty on the rest of the plan. We describe how the system addresses challenges such as state representation, conflict resolution and uncertainty. A few experimental results are provided to highlight both the advantages and disadvantages of the current approach, and to motivate directions of further research. All algorithms are implemented and tested in the playmate scenario.